Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-11-18

No more u ique, distinctive, and at the
same time popular character stands before
the people to-day than Els Wheeler
Wilcox.
Born in q Wisconsin village some thirty
odd years ago, when Wisconsin was not
much more than & frontier state, without
Influential friends or family, and without
money, she made for herself q DaTe IL
literature which commanded attention
before she wGs eighteen years old. To
ore who knows it in detail her history
reads like fairy story. Reared on
western prairie, she Is 8n OTnsment 10
the most brilliant circles OF the metrop-
olis9
she hSd never seen an editor or literary
person and knew nothing Of the methods
of getting into print when, at fourteen,
she read her first production TO the press,
The New York Mercury published these
childish efforts which were written IN
prose and under nom ds-plumes.
1t declined the first poem she ever sent
for publication, and the editor sarcastic
ally advised her to "crush her ambitions
to be poet"
The Wsverly Magazine has the honor
to be the first TO present the name CT Ella
Wheeler to the public.
Frank Leslie sent her the first check
she ever received at seventeen years Of
age,
From that time TO the present day she
has never sWerved nor foltered in the
steady, hard climb toward success.
She never sent manuscript in her life
for criticism and never asked for aid or
influence in her literary ventures.
During the last fifteen years Ells
Wheeler has probably been the most crit
icised, abused, praised, misconstrued and
admired woman in the literary world.
Without a particle of effort to create a
sensation, everything she has in that
time written has had the effect of stirring
up criticism.
Her writings seem to be possessed Of
certain something combustible in their
composition, that on striking outer cir
invariably rends it with more or less OF
an explosion.
Her first published book was ."Drops Of
Water,"s collection OF juvenile temper
ance verses. These were crude but filled
with the drama; ic enthusiasm which has go
permeated her lister work, and provoked
praise and censure in proportionate quan-
titles from the contending forces on the
liquor question.
"Shells," a little volume now out Of
print, comes next.
"Maurinne," by many considered Der
finest work, and the famous Poems of
Passion which set the literary world on
fire, followed within three years Of each
other.
Columns of sbuse and prsise items rid
iculing and euioeizing the latter volume
filed all the papers in the country.
Some Of her friends urged her to snip
press the book after its first appearance,
but strong in the courage Of her convic-
tions, she resd the severe and unjust re-
views through tears, not unmixed with
smiles at sight of the golden coins which
puuctuated the comments of the critics.
Many of these dollars were spent IN
building home for aging parents, and
much OF the halo now surrounding this
remarkable woman's life is the reflection
of the generous deeds Of her early monied
life.
Milwaukee people gave her "benefit"
in Nav, 1888, when she was made the SUBJ
iect Of speech by United States Sena-
tor ard was presented with china basket
containing $500 in gold.
Long before her happy marriage in Msy,
1884, with the elegant and cultivated gen.
tleman who brought her to the east, her
narue was 8 household word and she was
s welcome guest in the best circles of the
great northeast.
To her rare genius were added unusual
graces of person. She was brilliant
and tIctful talxer, good dancer, and q